The Jalianwala Bagh Massacre is yet another example of the British doing their very best to commit mis-rule on a grand scale. In 1919 General Dyer ordered his troops to open fire on a large group of Indians and depending on whom you want to believe, up to 1000 were killed. From the official British reaction, there is no doubt that he committed a major crime even if he was not found guilty of one.
The enormity of the crime is now only evidenced by bullet marks on a few of the walls inside the park, a few commentary placards
and (in a few years time when it has grown some more) some rather clever topiary of soldiers with raised rifles.
Some Lovely Old Buildings and Street Life
As is always the case in India, there are some lovely old buildings everywhere in the town if you keep your eyes open for them. Amritsar seems to specialise in “jettying” as these examples show:
There is a lot of construction work taking place
around the Temple
and examples of women working as manual labourers
on one of the many building sites.
This is a perfect illustration of why one has to be careful eating in India - the plates etc are
being cleaned in the public drain / sewer which runs in front of the shop.
Carrying or transporting things around the city demands strength and confidence that no one will knock into you
or that nothing will spill
and that the horse is strong enough.
This was one of the few traffic accidents we saw which is surprising given the chaos of the streets.
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